Cogs Contributes

Non-Profit Volunteering

Agency Cogs Agency

Client ReDI School of Digital Integration

Job Presentation, Co-Creation Workshop

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ReDI School of Digital Integration is a non-profit Digital School for tech-interested newcomers applying for asylum in Germany. They offer courses taught by volunteers who are well-established industry professionals in front and back-end development, UX/UI design and product management.

But for ReDI students, learning the skills and receiving an education is only half of what the ReDI programme offers. The other half enables students to discover how to convince potential employers they are the best candidate for the roles they’re applying for. Here is where the Cogs Berlin team came in.

Design for Agility

WorkSpace Design/Organisational Design

Agency Cogs Agency

Client Cogs Agency

Job Ideator, Design Direction

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The move into a large open loft space in a Wilhelminian building in Berlin-Mitte not only gave us a new interior design but also a chance to reflect on our previous way of working together. We focused on ergonomics to improve our agility. And the simultaneous relaunch of our CI served as a fantastic modular system for a subtle Corporate-Branding. We decided for Dittmar+friends as our trusted partner for a customized Design-Solution.

Read a full-length interview about the latest developments at Cogs Berlin here.
Find the great studio-shots by Sebastian Dörken below.

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The newly designed studio is now the ideal environment to practice new agile processes and methodologies of working. From cross-desk collaboration on our large customized tables, to stand ups and daily sprint meetings in front of our Kanban inspired steering boards to team-coachings, inspiration-formats and public Meetups in our lounge. The new Design builds naturally on the Cogs culture and is feeding back into it at the same time.

Headhunter Secrets

It was a great pleasure to give a session: ‚Headhunter Secrets‘ at UXcamp Europe together with my fellow colleagues Asta Baumoeller from MELT.MEDIA RECRUITMENT and Claudia Wulf from NAKAMA GERMANY.

We discussed the current european XD-landscape, trends, sweet spots, top combinations, self-branding and relationship-building challenges. We received a lot of questions from the audience and a lively discussion ensued.

UXcamp Europe is an ad-hoc unconference born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from attendees. It´s the largest event for User Experience professionals in Europe. 600+ active participants from all over the World meet for inspiration and networking in Berlin every year.

Below some impressions and fantastic sketchnotes of our session by Mayra Bautista.

Humanizing Organisations.Culture eats Process for Breakfast.

Article

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How do Startups, Agencies and Companies deal with the need for organisational and cultural change? Here are my thoughts, personal experiences and inspiration on the subject, alongside a contribution by Eero Aalto, Head of Business Transformation at Heimat. We at Cogs are very proud of our impactful collaboration with Heimat — supporting them in building the next evolution of their business by identifying, attracting and keeping the right global digital talent.

This article is inspired by an Interview, Alexander Clark conducted with me for his Hyper Island Master Thesis 2017: Empathic Culture & Self-Leading Teams. How might we help organisations ‚shift‘ to an empathic culture and a self-organising model? I was able to draw on my experiences from my previous role as Executive Creative Director at German Agency Aperto – an IBM Company and as my current role as Asscociate Director Experience Design at global Recruitment Agency Cogs.

Berlin to London.Why make the Change?

Event Design

Agency Cogs Berlin

Client Cogs Berlin

Job Ideator, Moderator, Fascilitator

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Situated in the Mitte district the new Cogs Berlin offices are, big, modern and the ideal space to host a Meetup event. Working abroad has become a hot topic of discussion, so taking our event series: Cogs Crunch international was an obvious step. We invited UX-Designers/Strategists from our network and 3 guest speakers: Paul Gibbins, Alex Clark and Martin Jackson to discuss the challenge of working in the field of Experience Design across both cities — London and Berlin.

The discussion revolved around topics as: The differences in worklLife culture, The logistics of working in London vs.Berlin and freelancing in Berlin vs. London. Berlin has so much to offer the digital Job Market, filled with culture, innovation and a budding Startup scene. But London still remains the City that Designers seem to flock to thanks to its diverse employment opportunities.

The event was a huge success with some unique and brilliant insights and a great kickoff for our Cogs Crunch series in Berlin. A huge thank you to the wonderful London Cogs team for support and collaboration.

DECODER

Innovation Platform for Aperto

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Experienced with both sides of the creative culture {the idea-driven traditional and the technology-driven digital}, I am stoked about their potential to clash. So I have created a clash for Aperto: DECODER, a generative event format that stands for the deciphering of creative patterns, communications systems, and different methods of working. We decided to open our house to smart people who teach us how to decode communication patterns far away from the digital things we’re usually dealing with.

The initial DECODER workshop with Eike König {Hort} focused not on results but on a question: How does one approach a task or assignment in an open, unconventional manner? One answer: under the direction of Berlin Architect Van Bo Le-Mentzel, six teams each developed a 1 SQM ‘House’ designed to invite outsiders into that team’s mission and purpose. And with our friends from Prinzessinnengärten we answered the question: how can we push the gardening trend into the realm of interaction? Our answer: Interactive Office Gardening! By connecting Urban Gardening with the Maker Movement, we also connected the biological ecosystem with the digital — and thereby created something unique and very Aperto-like.

Unfold

Do-It-Yourself-With-Others

Article

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The good People from ‚postdigital‘ asked me to contribute a story to their upcoming issue about the importance of tactile and haptic experiences in the field of digital creation.

I decided to give the topic a ‚Dark‘ and therefore broader context: The Importance of making mistakes. In agile Product Development the mistake is a driver for constant improvement. A liquid approach, that is already influencing contemporary communication strategies. But what can we digitals learn from mistakes in creating physical things together? Their irreversibility is forcing us to give them a meaning, changing and transforming them for the most innovative outcome. And it’s teaching us respect, trust and a sense for collaboration.

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Prototyping Educational Futures

Volunteering, Mentoring

Agency youyesyeah

Client Junge Tüftler, Code Week Award

Job Ideator, Mentor, Collaborator

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I’m a member of a network of digital experts, mentors and collaborators. We combine technology with design-expertise and education in playful workshops for kids and youngsters. How can we use the creative potential of digital tools and convert them according to our needs? Providing competence is just one aspect of contemporary education. A basic understanding about how technology works and of the societal issues it’s raising, will be essential to shape our future. This needs experienced mentoring and an open environment for curiosity, play and empathy.

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Mentoring in Hackathons and Workshops at the Federal Ministry of Education and at IXDS Berlin, initiated by Junge Tüftler and Code Week Award.

Multifaceted Conversation

Corporate Web Estate

Agency Aperto

Client Volkswagen Group

Job Creative Lead / Member Steering Team

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Our task was to develop the new Corporate Web Estate for the Volkswagen Group — a platform dedicated to boost the Groups exceptional Brand Portfolio and to highlight the image and charisma of the brands. A challenging and responsible mission in times of Diesel-Gate and the rise of competitive disruptive mobility service offerings.

This complex multi-stakeholder project was made possible through hard work and expertise of my former design team: Silke Kreiling, Reik Wendt, Thomas Dubberke and Nadine Thieme.

Our Design Vision is inspired by the basic priniples of a caleidoskope: variety, combination, symmetry and logic. The new platform enables context, reveals connections and interactions through combination and re-combination of facts, voices and vibes. As a result we see the bigger picture that is greater than the simple sum of its parts.

The global player becomes transparent and opens up to the digital dialogue as a company – with cross-brand design, progressive UX and a broad content mix of corporate information, investor & employer relations and thrilling stories.

Smart Brand Utilities

Service Design

Agency Aperto

Client MAN

Job Creative Lead / Member Steering Team

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We have been realizing numerous digital projects for MAN. Strategic online marketing consultation ensures optimal performance while Service Design offers MAN customers added value. One highlight of the collaboration with MAN: At the IAA International Motor Show Aperto creates a clever digital tool – the Total Cost of Ownership {TCO} Optimizer. A tool that calculates the actual operating costs for a MAN truck, taking into consideration the individual owner’s circumstances.

A compelling idea, as these costs can be much lower if options, such as the aerodynamics package or other fuel-saving extras are ordered. Thus the TCO Optimizer quickly shows the long-term potential for savings due to targeted investments.

I had the pleasure to team up with Stefan Freimark, who did an outstanding job in tackling this complex Service Design task.

Rally the World

Transmedia Storytelling Campaign

Agency Aperto

Client Volkswagen

Job Digital Creative Lead / Member Steering Team

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In a World obsessed with the sexiness of Formula One, rally seems damned to continue scraping by as niche sport. We wanted to help Volkswagen change this paradigm — and bring the rally back to the people. Not only for the fans on the sidelines, but for everyone. What’s particularly difficult: the World Rally Championship runs over the course of 12 months and all over the world. Even if you begin by exciting the fans, how do you maintain their interest for such a long time?

Our strategy: transmedia storytelling, compelling and involved from the very start. The central platform – the digital hub at rallytheworld.com – provides the global fan base with access to the circuits, challenges, and team pilots. A social media buzz, mobile gaming, live events and competitions ensure the fans get a piece of the action – and keep coming back for more for over twelve months.

ME & FRIENDS

Linking Physical / Virtual

Agency Scholz & Friends Berlin

Client Scholz & Friends Berlin

Job Creative Direction

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When an enterprise lives the philosophy of flat hierarchies and appreciation of every one of its individuals, then connecting its Corporate Identity to its people is a logical next step as well as a unique and brave move. Pushing a fantastic idea to the next level, hooking it up to the social web and therefore ‘interactivating‘ the Brand made this one of my favourite Projects at Scholz & Friends. The first Agency with a Foursquare display!

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Big Thanks to all the friends who supported the idea. It was a pleasure collaborating with you and it’s sad that this pleasure was so short-lived.

One of Lürzer’s questions was about my creative roots in East-Berlin. Thinking of my past brought back bittersweet memories and the insight, that the creative irreverence that served back then as an escape from a culture of denial serves me well nowadays questioning a culture of abundance.

These Days

Visual Diary

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I arrived in NYC in the winter of 1995. I came to stay for a year, but I fell in love forever. On my way there, by chance, I found a cheap camera, so I started taking pictures of all the stories as I lived through them.

I didn’t develop them, though, or even looked at the negatives. I just kept them and brought them back with me – thousands of undeveloped photos. Now, digitalized and reborn, I can share these grainy memories of something really good.

Pattern of No

Directed Photography

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On set during a product shoot for La Prairie, the photographer Attila Hartwig and I developed the idea to incorporate Mind Maps into liquid Surfaces and, at the same time, photographically document the processes of overlapping and transformation of these snippets.

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The idea didn’t survive long, it simply failed the reality check. But in return this series of images originated from our initial concept – a gift of manipulated chance.

Why I Go to the Movies Alone

Excerpt from Richard Prince: ‚The Perfect Tense‘ {Why I Go to the Movies Alone}.
In collaboration with Berlin based Photographer Roman März.

‚Overdetermination was part of his plan and in a strange way, the same kind of psychological after-life was what he loved, sometimes double loved about her picture.‘

Science Fiction

Audiovisual Installation

‚The full moon above the glass box, as well as the hoarse electronic voice of the computer brain from Godard’s film ‚Alphaville‘, that calls out every so often, both combine with the architecture of the technical monument – ‚Science Fiction or Moon above the Kurfürstendamm‘ delivers an absurd statement on the Hype and Glamour that determined the Turn of the twentieth century and, at the same time, initiates a romantic element to the omnipresent take-over of power through electrical machines and devices. Dr. Ute Tischler, Curator ‚countdown west 2k‘

countdown west 2k / Traffic Station, Kurfürstendamm

A Project by Triad Berlin for Reemtsma

Turning Tricks

Video Installation

An Office Space is turned into a Glass Showcase, with two different Photo-Sessions as well as two Video Projections screened on the outer Surface of the large-scale Windows facing a busy Street. During the Day, each of the Photo-Sessions displays a Set of Stills of a uniformed Character occupying diverse Positions towards the Camera/Spectator. At Night, the Window Surface serves as a Cinematic Screen. The Video is projected upside down, showing the same Character as before in the Photographs, now sitting on an Office Chair while rotating in high Speed around himself – over-and-over again, to the left and to the right.

Façade Haus Pietzsch, Unter den Linden, Berlin

What drives me

With over 15 years of experience in creating and executing Design Strategies as a Creative Director in big digital Agencies,

my focus is now on the match of the brightest global Experience Design talent with Germany‘s leading Agencies, blue chip Companies and Startups. Throughout my career I came to understand that employee experience should be at the heart of a company’s objectives. Because of this, organizations must use a holistic approach to talent strategy in terms of attracting and retaining the best people to stay ahead. In this area, I offer extensive experience from the industry and provide a bespoke consulting service to clients.